Goodbye to Love

Infobox Single
Name = Goodbye to Love


Caption = Cover to the Carpenters' single, "Goodbye to Love."
Artist = The Carpenters
from Album = A Song for You
A-side = "Goodbye to Love"
B-side = "Crystal Lullaby"
Released = June 19, 1972
Format = 7" single
Recorded = Spring 1972
Genre = Pop
Length = 03:58
Label = A&M Records
1367
Writer = Richard Carpenter; John Bettis
Producer = Jack Daugherty
Certification =
Chart position = * #7 (U.S. Billboard Hot 100), #2 (U.S. AC)
Last single = "It's Going to Take Some Time"/"Flat Baroque" (1972)
This single = "Goodbye to Love" (1972)
Next single = "Sing" (1973)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = A Song for You
Type = studio
Tracks = ;Side one
# "A Song for You"
# "Top of the World"
# "Hurting Each Other"
# "It's Going to Take Some Time"
# "Goodbye to Love"
# "Intermission";Side two
# "Bless the Beasts and Children"
# "Flat Baroque"
# "Piano Picker"
# "I Won't Last a Day Without You"
# "Crystal Lullaby"
# "Road Ode"
# "A Song for You (Reprise)""Goodbye to Love" is a song composed by Richard Carpenter (musician) and John Bettis. It was released by the Carpenters in 1972. On the "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" documentary, Tony Peluso stated that this was one of the first, if not the first, love ballads to have a fuzz guitar solo.

Upon reviewing an old Bing Crosby 1940 film called "Rhythm on the River", Carpenter noticed that they kept referring to the struggling songwriter's greatest composition, "Goodbye to Love". (The song is never played in the movie, only referred to by its name.) Carpenter immediately envisioned the tune, with the lyrics starting with:

: I'll say goodbye to love: No one ever cared if I should live or die.: Time and time again the chance for : Love has passed me by...

While the Carpenters were working on the song, Carpenter decided that there should be a fuzz guitar solo on it, so he hired Tony Peluso and then asked him to play a guitar solo. Peluso first played something soft and sweet; Carpenter told him to just "burn".

The finished product was released on June 19, 1972, and reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Richard received hate mail because of his idea for a fuzz guitar solo in a love ballad, and some adult-contemporary-oriented radio stations refused to play the song because of this solo (which may have kept it from reaching #1 on the AC chart, becoming the first Carpenters A-side since "Ticket to Ride" "not" to be a #1 AC hit). However, many Carpenters fans today still admire the song for its uniqueness.

"Goodbye to Love", with its fuzz guitar solo in the center of a "middle of the road" (MOR) song (which had not been tried before), had a significant impact on the power ballads which were released afterwards. ["Popular Musicians" by Steve Hochman/McCrea Adams 1999 page 168 Book] [Tony Peluso, "Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters" Video]

References